The Bianconeri coach told Tuttosport that leading Juventus differs from every post he has held, from Roma and Napoli to Inter and the national team.
Luciano Spalletti has described coaching Juventus as “something grandiose” and insisted the club measures itself against its own standards rather than against other teams. He made the remarks in an interview with Tuttosport, later picked up by TuttoMercatoWeb.
The Juventus coach used his previous postings as a frame of reference, setting each one against the job he now holds in Turin.
“At Roma I coached a fanbase, at Napoli you coach a city. At Inter a tradition, with the national team a people. At Juve you coach a mentality: it’s the history of football,” Spalletti said.
The comparison covers the full arc of his senior career in Italy. Spalletti has worked at three of Juventus’ main Serie A rivals and led the Azzurri before taking charge of the Bianconeri. He chose a different word for each.
For Juventus, he spoke of a “Juventus mode” that goes beyond ordinary enthusiasm. He listed “joy, pride and responsibility” as feelings that “never leave me alone”, and spoke of an intensity that swings between “exaggerated sadness and overwhelming happiness”.
One line stood out as a statement of intent for the dressing room. “You mustn’t live only on football, but on Juventus,” he said. “We’re in competition with our own level and not with others.”
That framing places the pressure squarely on the squad’s internal expectations. Results against direct rivals matter less, in his telling, than whether Juventus live up to their own history.
Asked what it meant personally to be in charge of the club, Spalletti did not play it down. “It’s something grandiose. Enormous,” he said. “Doing something you like is freedom, being happy to go and do it is love.”
He also acknowledged the weight of the role. “There are very high responsibilities, of course. It will be difficult for us,” he added.
The tone is familiar. Spalletti has long favoured vivid, emotional language in interviews, and this one followed that pattern. It also offered a clear picture of how he wants the Juventus squad to approach the season: as custodians of a mentality rather than simply as competitors in a title race.
Spalletti was on the touchline at the Allianz Stadium on 20 September, when Juventus hosted Atalanta in Serie A.
